Sheldonian and the Cape Town Opera

A wonderful concert last night at the Sheldonian with the Cape Town Opera. I got to the venue soon after 2pm to take background shots - and some to augment assignment 3 - as well as rehearsal shots and of the event in general.

His Excellency Dr. Zola Skweyiya High Commissioner for Republic South Africa

The CTO have a wonderful sound and I may try and get to a performance of either "Mandela Trilogy" or "Porgy and Bess" on their current UK tour and this event at the Sheldonian had a reasonably high profile and the performance was addressed initially by the High commissioner for the RSA (he was brought onto the floor for a dance by one of the troupe towards the end of the evening!).

This concert was sponsored by the Lord's Taverners and underwritten by Underwoods Solicitors with whom I worked on this. Underwoods were happy for me to take any images I liked, they had agreed with the Sheldonian that I could roam wherever I wanted, but could I take some images of the guests and their associated activities on the day. This post deals with the shots that surround the performance and the Sheldonian.

The weather yesterday was wet. The (now) typical June weather had probably dampened enthusiasm for "passing trade" coming to the concert and the numbers in attendance seemed a little low to me. I was able to get to the "gods"the upper seats and take the perspective from as high as possible from both ends. Because there was a performance the Sheldonian brought in their volunteer "force" of stewards and I certainly detected a tension between the Sheldonian staff and the event organisers, but if I did the event wasn't marred by it and the evening went extremely well. I have some other detail shots which I may include later such as the crest above















The Performers:

I joined the performers rehearsal as they were warming up - I haven't been "amongst" an Opera troupe before, and certainly not whilst they warmed up. They occupied the bulk of the available floor as they went through their vocal exercises and many of them were doubly occupied, some reading the event programme, some looking at mobile 'phones, some doing both. The sound was one of complete harmony and a number of people, including me, applauded throughout the rehearsal (not the warm-up exercises, I hasten to add).

After the warm up they rehearsed some of the chorus' and arias to be performed later in the day - they concentrated on the "choreography" of both the music and their positions. I have tried to gain a perception of both the joy - which was amply in evidence - and their movement - this wasn't a sacramentally rigid choral ensemble, they employed supreme vocal virtuosity coupled with a real sense of joy with the voice.

Leper hospice

I suppose I was encouraged to put these photographs onto the blog - they were all taken during a visit to Spinalonga, an island just off Crete that was a Leper colony and which is now a "just a" community. The island hosts the derelict remains of a hospice that is fenced off as it is, very clearly, a crumbling ruin. I broke through the fence (not a difficult task) and went inside; I expected a scene similar to what I found and suspected that any photographs would be a metaphor for the disease it was once constructed to care for. It was now in a state similar to the way society dealt with the condition - and still does in certain parts of the world - that is a crumbling vestige of what it once was.

I'm not expecting to use these as part of my course, inasmuch as assignment material, however I thought I would put them here as part of a discussion as to whether the people, who once inhabited this place can be detected - even when their physical presence departed the building some many years ago.

The size of the task

Tomorrow, June 8th is my youngest son's birthday - he will be thirty, yesterday we saw his son walk properly for the first time, he is eleven months old and tomorrow will be my last day of work as I have been declared redundant and will be accepting early retirement. I am not redundant, the company have decided that my role is redundant; but it is difficult not to feel that there is a little stickiness to the moniker, though not as much as it was when I was previously "let-go" eighteen years ago. This time though, I expect not to crave employment, but rather self fulfilment, to continue the road I started on in this course as well as other distractions and see where it all leads.

I am nearing the time to pull together assignment three of this module and I'm feeling the same level of confidence about this assignment as I did for the last one, which is not helping as I don't think I did very well at all in assignment two. I am therefore determined to try to stick to the assignment brief, to try and not create an overlapping narrative, to try and not over complicate the work as my tutor suggested in the notes accompanying the feedback last time.
Today, my penultimate day of paid employment, has been spent in tidying things up, collecting things into piles to hand back to my employer and for some reflection. I have been looking at photographers work - for some time today - reading about their work, what motivates them, their statements. People like Claire Hewitt and Leonie Hampton, Pat Moss and Susannah Baker. And the more I delve the more I find inspirational work, all with something to say, all with legitimate bodies of work that feel intellectually rounded.
The picture here was one I took of a derelict leper colony hospice. The building was closed, it had "danger do not enter"written in various parts of the perimeter chain link fencing. I looked at the building and determined that I would cross that barrier and enter and spend some time taking a lot of images that I "knew" would depict a metaphor for leprosy. The crumbling shell of a building, with bits falling off left to decay further. It was extremely peaceful inside the old building and there were few, if any, signs that nature was retaking the building as often happens in these cases - which on reflection I found curious. This picture, and the others I have in this series, lacks what I think the work I mentioned above have in abundance, namely: Preconception - I knew of this building but hadn't planned on executing anything other than perhaps a record. Aesthetic - I was as interested, maybe more so, to capture images that were pleasing than to carry any significant narrative, so the composition was more important than context, which I now think is probably the wrong way round. Context - very little in this series provided a visual clue linking people to this disease. Absence - Perhaps most important of all I found no way to include even the ghost of a person - there is a total absence of humanity in my series, which is maybe the inherent narrative, but my feelings are that there should be at least an essence of someone in them, after all if I couldn't do that then this is about leprosy and not about it's effect.
What I'm now realising is the distance of travel I need to go to achieve what it is I want from this course, reflecting on the work of the photographers above and others I have encountered so far on this journey. I know what I want is people related, I feel the need to explore people's place in their, or the, world. To find an expression of their existence in what is becoming a less than humane place.
This reflection may have come about due to my new circumstances, impossible to tell really, but it is likely that the way that redundancies are handled by companies, especially large ones, that dehumanises the interface, has amplified these thoughts. I feel that I have a rubicon to cross, but as yet I can't say what size that divide is nor precisely where that barrier is.

Tim Andrews

Recently I had the opportunity to meet with Chris Friel recently at his home in Whitstable, I had come across his work via a friend of mine and have written about his work here before. I had a bit of a struggle getting to Chris's place, the indicated journey time of just over two hours turned into an odyssey of about six hours due to motorway closures and detours.

Tim Andrews 2. Reprinted by kind permission of the artist Chris Friel

I had a few topics and a number of questions to ask him regarding his photography and I will write these up in another place; but one of the areas I wanted to explore with Chris was that of portraits. On his Flickr site - here - there is a a paucity of portraits, though what there are of them, and I am including the all the pictures with people in - as opposed to posed portraits - are compelling, some disturbingly so. The landscapes that dominate his collection exemplify his technique that he has cultivated over the last few years, that he describes as using blur and movement to direct the the viewer to a specific area of the image. Whereas his profession as a sound recordist takes him all over the world, his photographic journeys take him not much further than the outlook of his front door, living as he does on the beach, most of his work is is within a couple of miles or so from home.

Tim Andrews on the other hand is on another journey. diagnosed at the age of 54 with Parkinson's decease he has decided to dedicate a good deal of his life to being an art project. Andews answered an advert from a photographer advertising for a model and posed for him, he has subsequently posed for nearly 200 photographers from Graeme Montgomery to Rankin, from Danielle Tunstall here to Chris Friel see Guardian article here.
Andrews describes his methodology as scouring the web for interesting photographers and asking them if they would like to get involved, his blog entitled "Over the Hill" is an account of his journey to date and his session with Chris here.
I hadn't heard of Tim Andrews' project before my journey to Whitstable, Chris Friel mentioned Andrews coming to see him quite casually, and there being a bit of an issue with the sea, so they came inside and Chris sat him where I was sitting. Whilst Friel's trademark tilt and shift lens (I suspect the 45mm one and not the 90mm version that he also uses) is plainly in evidence, it is the very subtle use of it that empowers this portrait. Rankin in his portrait attempts to mask Andrews condition by ensuring the shutter speed is such that there is no movement in the subject. Chris Friel ensures that there is. Of the three that are on the Flickr site  from a collection of about eight that were supplied post sitting to Andrews, I think this is the most powerful. Friel's technique is to complete as much as possible in camera, very little is done is post processing (monochrome conversion tended to done in camera also - I will check as to whether this has been in the same way). Contextualising Andrews journey by encompassing this portrait delivers a strong narrative to this picture.
And for another view of Tim Andrews I recommend this video - turn the volume up!